IndyCar competition enhancements do the trick at Infineon

Two of the competition enhancements first tried in the defunct Champ Car series did exactly what they were supposed to Sunday at Infineon Raceway in the IZOD IndyCar Series. Option tires, notable to fans and competitors by the red stripe on the sidewalls, were faster initially then slower when they wore out. Both characteristics made passing more likely. And with the use of the “push to pass” button, drivers made passes using that extra 200 rpm for a limited time, good for about 20 extra horsepower.
And another change orchestrated last year by Infineon Raceway management to make passing more feasible also improved competition. By moving the course from traditional Turn 7 to running down the wide, straight drag strip to a different Turn 7 that incorporated the NASCAR approach to the esses, the bonsai pass returned to the drivers’ repertoire.

With nothing to hit if you get it wrong and go too deep, that opportunity was sometimes too much of an enticement. Sausalito’s J.R. Hildebrand had his second and last scheduled race in the Dreyer & Reinbold No. 24 Dallara Honda come to an abrupt end when Marco Andretti took the bait and bit off more than he could chew.

Andretti entered the braking zone two car lengths back and full of optimism. He darted to the inside, out of Hildebrand’s mirrors, but the rookie was wise enough to leave more than a full car width to his inside as he turned towards the apex. But Andretti had too much speed to maintain the radius he would need to employ, got sideways, and slid into Hildebrand. The impact broke the 22-year-old’s suspension.

“Going into the corner I broke way late, figuring, ‘OK, I’ll brake super deep. If he’s all the way next to me at turn in, I’ll just give it to him.’ I didn’t see him until he was into my sidepod,” Hildebrand said from pit lane moments after the race finished. “He was on the passing line, but he just carried too much speed for both of us to make it through the corner.”

Another factor that made passing more feasible was the recent judgement against Helio Castroneves at the Vancouver, B.C. race where he received a blocking penalty and lost the win. During the final restart on the ultra-wide airport circuit Castroneves clearly stayed way right heading into the following tight right hand turn, forcing Penske Racing teammate Will Power to go around the outside.

Although Castroneves only made one move to determine his line into the corner and did not weave to block, it was judged that a leader must take a traditional racing line and that the inside approach to the tight corner was the domain of the driver making an overtaking attempt.

Applied to Infineon, the threat of a similar black flag penalty definitely cut down blocking into Turn 7 and more overtaking was the result.

The reaction to that precedent has been mixed in the paddock, but 2009 Infineon winner Dario Franchitti offered a voice of reason on the topic.

“The rule is there for a reason, and I agree with the rule,” Franchitti said during a pre-race phone interview. “There are definitely a few folks out there who would drive you into the walls or the grass, if there were no consequences. One of the downsides of the cars getting safer, some people think that they are invincible and can do anything, so the rule is there to protect us from ourselves in some ways. While it doesn’t allow maybe a pure form of racing, but the other side of that, is weaving and driving somebody onto the grass a pure form of racing?I don’t think so. If you look back through the decades, it wasn’t done before because if they touched tires, they’d get hurt or killed. Unfortunately, some of the guys we’re racing with don’t see it that way.”

All these factors added up to a memorable race with drama throughout. The IndyCar show is getting better, and last weekend’s round at Infineon was proof positive of that.